My wife's car needed a recall done so I dropped it off this morning and got an HS250 hybrid loaner. Dog slow, but otherwise, it's actually kind of cool. It's apparently a fully loaded version with Nav, HUD, radar cruise, heated/cooled seats, XM radio, etc. It even has a button (actually about 50 buttons it looks like ) on the steering wheel named LKA. I pushed that button and started to drift into another lane and the crazy car actually turned the steering wheel back into my lane. That was pretty wild. First time I have experienced that sensation of the car turning the wheel for me to maintain my lane position.

So, I was enjoying the car and I turned on cruise and it engaged radar cruise, so I did what any enthusiast would do and sped up to 85mph with radar cruise on and cut into another lane with a car going 60mph. The HS250 nailed the brakes automatically to maintain the 100ft distance between the car in front and me.

But, here is where the car tried to kill me. The highway ends with a stop light through a small town and I had reengaged cruise control to 65mph. Car in front of me, HS250 automatically slows down, car in front moves over to another lane, and HS250 starts to speed back up pretty quickly. Problem was, there were cars stopped about 300 feet in front of me. HS250 KEEP accelerating. HS250 beeps like crazy at me while accelerating and I manually nail the brakes engaging ABS and car stops. That was weird.

Otherwise, it's actually a fun little video game type car with all the gizmos.

 

You know it's winter when someone posts about this car...

0 replies... I saw you took some time to write something about the Lexus Corolla so I thought I'd post a reply in the hopes that you don't feel that your 3-4 min of typing was a wasted effort.

I have to confess, I can't bring myself to read anything about this car so I have no idea what your post says but here is a bump so maybe someone who is in the middle of a root canal needs something to read.

 

That car epitomizes people buy marketing. But I would still like to take one for a spin for the hell of it.

 

please continueee...

 

I clearly do't get it...

Hybrids are a marketing scam.... go green, save gas, hi-tech video games on wheels... most of you have it all figured out... Hell... Smokey Yunick had it all figured out years ago... we already have the technology to produce tidy, efficient, little fun cars... (Honda CRV for one)... I just can't see owning/driving an overpriced golf cart that uses computers to keep you in your lane, turn, and stop for you.

Sorry, just my opinion... seems like every time I run up on a Hybrid it's in the hammer lane of the interstate driving one mile an hour an over the speed limit, and refusing to get the hell out of my way why I'm doing my best to deplete the world of fossil fuel and destroy the ozone layer.

Now, let's mine the harbor!

 

I wonder if that LKA system brought you back into the lane via directly controlling the steering, or just slightly applying one of the brakes (I think that would cause the wheel to turn a bit too).

A lot of these new assist systems that are being developed are pretty impressive. Yes, cue the purist rage of "I want to drive my own damn car!" but I'm more interested in it for some of the other retards that might possibly crash into my purist car.

 

Most people have stop knowing how to drive already, now they are going to stop knowing how to steer as well?

I like the idea as a fun toy, but this is getting stupid. I am one of the few that still believe that no one should have a driver's license without knowing how to drive a manual.

 

Let's just start with THAT. If we could get THAT far, we'd be doing pretty well.

 

Cory, EVERYTHING is going feel slow to you after driving your car, for all you know the HS250 might seem fast as hell to the rest of us...